GSDM Community Outreach Continues Leading Into Global Days of Service

The Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) continues to be a leader in community outreach throughout the Greater Boston area as we head into the Global Days of Service in April. Lead by Kathy Lituri, Oral Health Promotion Director and Clinical Instructor, Global and Population Health, GSDM has participated in volunteer efforts at Rosie’s Place, Tet in Boston, the Greater Boston Food Bank throughout the months of February and March.

From February 10-11, 2017, eight GSDM DMD students volunteered at the Tet in Boston 2017 Festival held at Boston College High School. At the festival, GSDM had a booth where our students interacted with festival-goers and worked to promote oral health throughout the community. The GSDM volunteers were Bakr Amin DMD 18, Shahlil Amin DMD 20, Christine Chiao DMD 19, Richard Flynn DMD 17, Ray Kuo DMD 20, Alex Nguyen DMD 17, Jeremy Nguyen DMD 18, and Bowen Zhou DMD 19.

Tet in Boston is an annual Vietnamese New Year Festival organized by the Vietnamese-American Community of Massachusetts and the Intercollegiate Vietnamese Student Association that every year attracts about 5,000 attendees and over 50 vendors.

Two groups from GSDM volunteered at the Women to Women Dental Outreach Program at Rosie’s Place in February and March. The Women to Women Program is a collaborative effort with the Wellness Clinic at Rosie’s Place, and the BU Student Chapter of AAWD (American Association of Women Dentists) and Global and Population Health (GPH). This program strives to assess and address the oral health needs of the women that seek services at Rosie’s Place, a sanctuary for homeless, battered and displaced women.  The group spent the day answering questions, distributing home care products, and offering dental screenings and related advice.

GSDM volunteers at the Women to Women event on February 10, 2017 were Ms. Kathy Lituri and Dr. Kady Rawal, as well as Caroline Adams, DMD 18, Bakr Amin DMD 18, Amelia Baker DMD 18, Josephine Cambillo, Gagan Dhaliwal DMD 19, Alexandra Fili DMD 19, Sol Lee DMD 19, and Maedeh Sedaghati AS 17.

Volunteers at the March 10, 2017 event were Ms. Kathy Lituri Ms. Dee Devlin, Gagan Dhaliwal DMD 19, Vaibhav Jagad AS 17, Jasmine Khedkar AS 17, Bhoomi Kotak AS 17, Helen Stamatouras DPH, Stephanie Souza, Jenna Swotinsky DMD 19, and Asia Yip DMD 19.

Finally, as with every Preceptorship Program, our March 2017 Preceptorship students volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 from 1:00 – 3:30 p.m.

The Greater Boston Foodbank (GBFB) is the leading hunger-relief agency in New England. One in ten members of our community is at risk of hunger. Hunger is not a problem facing just those in poverty—it is also a challenge faced by working- and middle-class neighbors. A recent study shows that 47% of those at risk for hunger in Eastern Massachusetts earn too much to qualify for government-provided emergency food assistance. GSDM volunteers inspected, sorted and packed various donated grocery products to be distributed to hunger relief agencies.

GSDM was well-represented by Alicia Petrin, Purvi Desai, Paridhi Gupta, Sravanthi Papisetti, Samidha Rajora, Shaina Uppal, Moeza Saeger, and Kainat Naeem.

The Global Days of Service is a Boston University-wide collaboration among students, residents, alumni, faculty, and staff to serve communities around the globe. More information about the GSDM involvement during Global Days of Service will be available on our website in the near future.